Where Have You Been?
by Sopas Tontas
Summary: John thought it'd be cool living with his friends. Well he thought wrong. A meteor crashes on Earth with an alien that he has to befriend and hide from the rest of society, and those friends of his aren't making this easy on him. AU, rated T for now might change later (wonk), johnkat, mild johndave, maybe more pairings later on
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

A young man stands alone next to a lake. Today he is 17 years 1 day old. What shall his name be?

== Zoosmell Pooplord

No, damnit. What kind of sick person would ever name a kid they just met that? Try again.

== John Egbert

Yes, that's the spirit. Your name is John Egbert, and as mentioned previously, yesterday was your 17th birthday. Your three best friends came to Washington to celebrate the occasion; Rose Lalonde, Jade Harley, and your best bro, Dave Strider. Rose came here from NY, Dave from Texas, and Jade from her island. All you knew was that Jade's grandpa had owned the island before he died, and that it was somewhere in the Pacific Ocean with a volcano. You couldn't thank them enough for their long journey over here. In agreement, they'd be staying at your house for a few months, mainly for the summer. You guys had even transferred into school together and everything!

It was going to be so much fun. Or at least you thought. Rose had lost her luggage with her diary, so she wasn't in a talkative mood. Yesterday she had greeted everyone, sat during your party, then absconded the second she was permitted. Dave had ironically forgotten his shades. Even though it was your birthday money, you bought him a pair of cheap ones.

Jade hadn't had any problems, not having to pack much or having to use public air travel.

Needless to say, today you were all supposed to have gone to school together, but the platinum blondes wouldn't stop mourning their losses; Rose rewriting some of her old entries, Dave saying he'd show up fashionably late. When it was just you and Jade, the pair or you got teased about looking so similar. Sure, she was technically related to you, but not too directly.

So now you were just out by the lake contemplating. Maybe all this hadn't been a good idea, and you should've continued your insufficient dance around all of this. Sending presents in advance, trying to meet deadlines, and not knowing each other in person. Maybe what you didn't know wouldn't have hurt you.

You cast the thought away a few seconds later. You wouldn't want that. Even if they get annoying or just downright mean, you were still thankful to have your best friends.

Your feet swish over the grass, still a little damp from this afternoon's sprinkle, and head back home.

* * *

"Sup?" is what greets you as you turn around to close the door.

"Not much." Dave is looking at you behind his sunglasses. For a moment you ponder his eye color, then forget about it because you could probably give less fucks.

You walk over and plop down on the couch next to him. "Are you going to school tomorrow?" Your tone is nonchalant.

"Yea I guess. But it's so damn cold in Washington. How the actual fuck are you supposed to leave the house without becoming a popsicle?"

"Daaaave." You whine. "You just have to get used to it, and buying warmer clothes isn't a bad option, either." You chuckle inwardly at that last one. Most of Dave's clothes were for hotter weather, him being for Texas and all.

He gives you the usual poker face and nods, returning to his laptop. Your eyes glance at what he's doing.

Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff.

Figures.

"Where are the Jade and Rose?" The silence was getting a little too weird, so you decided bringing up members of the opposite sex would help.

Dave stops typing momentarily, thinking about the answer. "Probably in their room. Jade'll probably be doing her homework or whatever shit they gave to her at school. Will she even get homework this late in the year?" He sighs through his nose. "Rose is probably with her. Only the little goth is ape shit over making sure every last thought she's had has been documented. Like Jesus fuck, if I wrote down every good thing to come to mind I'd have to publish a never ending series. It'd almost as admired by aging mothers as Kinsey Millhone is." He proceeded to rant for a bit while you sat there nodding and pretending you cared about what he said.

That's another thing you've known about Dave for a long time. He sometimes gets straight to the point then goes on forever, or somewhat skillfully dodges the point like it was some kind of plague. A plague that would cause him to lose all things cool and ironic about himself. Ok now it's rubbing off on you and you know you better stop.

"Ok, thanks Dave." You begin to slide off the couch, thinking maybe Jade needed help with homework, or had questions still about the school.

"Hey, John?" Dave stops typing again and looks at you. Or maybe past you but you can't tell past the sunglass.

Okay, it's at you, he has just taken off his sunglasses.

"Yea Dave?" You break eye contact to check on the time. In about 10 minutes your dad will get home from work with dinner, which has about a one in who gives a fuck chance of being shitty Chinese takeout. It could be worse you guess, you didn't mind Chinese food; you just had to eat it a lot with your dad getting home at six every night. And oh lord Dave said something and you totally didn't catch that.

"Hehehe...sorry Dave. What was that again? I kinda spaced out there thinking of when we get to eat and stuff…Hehehe." You scratch the back of your head, feeling silly and mildly douchey about that.

"I said…" Dave stood up and grabbed your wrists. Your heart was kicking into high gear as he leaded forward, gently pressing his lips to yours. "Happy belated birthday."

Wait what?  
"D…Dave! What the hell!" You all but shriek out. "I am not a homosexual!"

He smirks and shoves his hands in his pockets. "Give me time."

Your dad conveniently (or maybe not, depending on what he heard and what had yet to be said) comes through the door with Chinese takeout boxes in hand. "John, can you go get my stuff? It's out in the car."

You walk out of your house a little faster than you probably should have, and loitered at the parked vehicle for a minute.

What the hell was Dave thinking? He knows you're not gay or anything like that. Don't get you wrong, you're fine with homosexual in general, but it just wasn't something that personally tickled your peach. Would you try going out with him if he offered? No well in hell was the reply you gave yourself. It'd be weird as heck just sharing a room with the guy now!

You exhale sharply and grab your dad's briefcase, shuffling your way inside. Smiling girls are making their way down the staircase.

"Good evening John." Rose says calmly. Too calmly… don't lose your head, John, they don't know anything!

"Hey guys!" You present them with your goofy bucktoothed grin. The five of you get your food and sit on the various seating fixtures placed throughout the living room. Casually of course, you manage to steer clear of sitting next the Dave, leaving Rose to occupy your now empty seat.

"How was school?" Your dad says after a few moments of eating.

Jade is the first to answer. "Great! It was sooo fun." She flashed the group her bright smile before continuing. "People were saying John and I were twins, or that we were clones, some even suggesting that we were together! Hehehe. But I'm sure it was all in good fun." She threw a hopeful look in your direction.

You nod after a second. "Yea. Other than that, not much."

"How about you two; Rose and Dave?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Egbert, but as you know, my journal was lost in the airport. I had no other choice than to stay home and re-document all the things that were lost. I'm very fond of having ideas organized." Rose curtly nods her head for an apology.

Your dad smiles. "Don't sweat it, kiddo."

A loud ahem is heard from the blonde boy. "I didn't feel well so I stayed home too." Bullshit. "But I'd say had a very_ swell_ day other than that."

Your eyes dart around the room, searching so something other than Dave Strider. They settle on an elegant harlequin picture. So majestic, those clowns. When you look back Rose is giving you a cocked eyebrow with matching question eyes.

"I wonder what's on TV. I don't really get to watch it much." Jade flawlessly changes the topic, oblivious to what was happening behind the scenes. Poor Jade. But maybe it was better if she didn't know.

You finish your meal to the voice of Mayor. "In the city of Townsville…"

* * *

**AN: kya my first fanfic ^u^k so heres chapter one. im going to TRY my best to get in a new chapter each week. expect for frequent chapters, though, for the next 2 or 3 weeks tho. i need to get this thing rolling, and it wont happen if people dont get hooked right away :3 **

**so right dont be all "no its johndave not johnkat!". the next chapter will introduce him as well as have some more onesided hammertime later on im going to see if i can successfully pull off a different dave ship cause i still love dave. well this is it guys! thanks for reading and be sure to review. byyyye **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

The next week passes without incident. You think maybe Dave was just trying to get a reaction out of you more so than actually coming onto you. By the end of this week you have almost forgotten about it. Almost.

School had gone very well this week too, you think. Dave had his own fangirls savoring every bit of breath that came from his mouth. His mouth. Snap out of it John! Anyway, you know you would be pissed off about not spending time with your best bro, especially if it was a bunch of desperate whiny girls with too much makeup. But you decide you don't mind too much, since Rose and Jade and you still hang out at lunch every day. Rose had made enough friends to count on the fingers of one hand, most of them the quiet or smart (or both) people. No matter how smart they were though, you still know in the back of your mind that Rose is _probably_ a lot smarter with a sharper tongue. Oh and enough wit to make up for the rest of the school's lack. Jade had mostly bonded with the guys; some of them earning themselves small crushes in the process. Jade, of course, didn't know about them, so you think you'll wait for one of them to come clean to her. Might make for a good (and short lived) relationship. Who knew?

* * *

You open your eyes and stretch. The clock on the nightstand next to you read 8:00 a.m. A lot of people questioned why you get up so early on weekends, but you don't really have an answer for them; you just do. Across the room on a mattress was a sleeping Strider, not stirring a bit as you get up and make your way to the door. The room is cold from leaving the window open at night, and for a minute you're in deep thought about going back to bed. Not to sleep, no, you're just freezing your ass off in a shirt and boxers.

To save your manliness you brave the cold and head downstairs. All the lights are off and it's still dim outside. The steps creaks a bit as you tip toe down. When you enter the living room you are delighted to feel warmth wrap around you. Rose is lying out of the couch reading with a fire going in the fireplace.

"Good morning, John." She doesn't look up from her book.

"G'morn'." You yawn back, wiping tears from your eyes. The conversation is over for now so you walk into the kitchen, not looking for anything in particular. You suppose you should eat something, it being morning and all, but what if your dad decides to make breakfast? Without a second thought you make yourself a cup of instant coffee and load it with as much cream and sugar as the mug can handle. You laugh inwardly because that was kinda punny, because mugs have handles.

Rose hasn't move from her spot as you reenter the living room. However, she does eye your light brown beverage. "How can you drink that so early? It's like drinking sugar?" She doesn't sound way too curious, but you decide to humor her anyway.

"This is pretty bitter actually. If I was allowed to, I'd just eat plain old sugar for every meal of the day. Why do you think I'm always happy?" Oh yea, this was happening.

She raises and eye brow and looks over at you. "Come again?"

You can resist laughing so that's what you do. "Gotcha Rose! Hehehe I can't believe I even got a little bit of a surprised reaction from you!" You smile gleefully at her. "I like going for walks in the morning so I just wanted something sugary is all."

She thinks for a moment and nods. "Yes, that makes sense. When will you be back?" You tell her around 9ish. "If you'd like, I can wake your dad and Jade and have breakfast ready for the time you arrive back."

"What about Dave?"

"What about him? Cool kids don't eat breakfast with his friends and a parent. So uncool." She smirks and looks over at you. "You best be in your way. Wouldn't want to come back to a cold breakfast, now would we?"

You grin and thank Rose, grabbing your dark grey jacket as you walk through the threshold.

* * *

The walk over to the pond was somewhat chilly, but it's okay because you're used to it. Sixty degree weather is like staple for Washington, so you can handle (no puns this time!) it being a few degrees cooler.

The lake is pretty as can be, all sparkly and whatnot. Well there goes your manliness you tried so hard to keep. You don't mind though, because you honest to god do find yourself in love with the view. You sit down on a decent sized rock a couple feet away from the pristine waters. You hope this lake, never, ever, gets ruined.

Your eyes close and you breathe in the clear air. This is why you come back here every day. No people and no noise. No worries and no judgments. Just fresh air that feels like heaven in your lungs, calm weather, and a view to die for. You open your eyes to gaze out on the water. Sometimes you wish you could live underwater, and just stay here forever and forget about all your problems. Scratch that last part. You don't really have any problems with life. You tug your jacket a little bit closer and attempt to curl in on yourself. You're sure you look dumb, but we already said no one was around. You settle for laying down sideways on the rock, curled up, snuggled under the jacket.

You can see little wisps of your breath as they leave your nose. A sigh escapes your lips. Maybe you can fall asleep and miss breakfast. Your dad always has cereal in the house, so that would suffice. You start to drift off with thoughts of cereal and how it wasn't owned by Betty Crocker when something catches your eye. In your peripheral vision you see a glint of light. You sit up to get a better view which only makes you shiver but you could care less because oh my goodness it's a shooting star.

You chew on your bottom lip for a minute. Why was the star out so late? Fuck it, who cares? It's in the here and now and that's all that matters. Your hands excitedly clap together, eyes closing and mind tinkering away. Oh gosh what were you going to wish for? This was so exciting. You exhale deeply as your dumbass mind spits out smoke. Hell. Just wish for some girly thing since your man grit has taken a turn for the worst.

You wish you had someone who would love you that you could call yours.

Yes, that was sweet. And hey. You don't think it was girly at all. With all the girls going around calling guys stupid or douchebags, and all the guys going around calling the girls cheap or snobby, you think it was very reasonable!

When you smile at your thought your lips crack a little bit. Oh shit, you should probably be headed back by now. When your lips crack it's either really cold or you've been out too long, and you know Mother Nature isn't out of line today. Shrugging, you stand up and get even colder. Once you get moving you'll get warmer, you know. You decide to take another quick peek at the lake. Soon enough your peek turned into a gawk. The lake shines more brightly than usual in the center, you think. Lazily, you gaze up.

And then it hits you.

Almost literally.

You barely manage to run over to the tree line, but still get knocked down from the force of the impact. It takes you a minute before you stand up again, still slightly winded. Good thing you noticed that meteor hurtling towards your small pathetic persona in time. You wonder briefly if the slab of space rock that almost killed you had been the same one you wished on, telling you that you wouldn't wind up with anyone. Then you remember that a shooting star is just junk burning up and becoming nothing in earth's atmosphere, so this must be some really strange coincidence.

You cautiously approach the still steaming, oddly shaped hunk of whatever the hell this was. Sure, it looked like a plain old space rock you've seen in movies and pictures, but something was still…off. You wait a few more minutes, mentally screaming at yourself for staying, before walking up to it. To test the temperature, you slowly place your hand on it. Still really hot, but not enough to burn you.

As carefully as possible, as if the thing would explode, you reach up and grab the top of it; it was about 7 feet tall, 10 feet wide and back if you disregarded its funky form. Using some of the nicks and hollows as footholds and handholds, you hoist yourself up.

The top is plain, give a hole towards the other side. Whatever this thing was, it was almost like an egg. An egg with a rabbit hole in it to get the goodies. You hesitantly crawl to the other side, where the hole is. Did you really want to know what the "goodies" were? Curiosity _did_ kill the cat, after all. Hey maybe there was a cat inside. You almost manage to laugh at your little joke, but the tension was too thick.

You let out a concentrated sigh before sliding into the hole with ease. It was almost too convenient, the size of the opening. Your heart beat quickens and sweat plasters your hair to your face. Goddamnit you forgot the inside was probably still hot.

You reach into your pocket and pull out your cell phone. You almost cry from nerves as you hit the 'home' button, shining it around inside. Initially, you sigh from disappointment and relief, not seeing anything. You feel like you're about the throw up so you begin hauling ass out of there.

You freeze and hold back a shriek of pure terror. Something is tugging at your pant leg. You start up you phone again and angle it down at you shoes.

And there is a bloodied, tired looking boy at your feet.

* * *

**AN: chapter twoooo :3 i hope this is socially acceptable, and that i didnt go overboard with suspense. i wanted to end it kinda curtly. now for my grand total of like -7 followers, im going away tommorow, so earliest i can post chapter 3 is monday... but it probably wont be up till tuesday. i skip homework to write this stuff for you guys! dont worry i love u tho -w- also i didnt feel like having johndave in this chapter. but soon. ok. well. peace out **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

You stop breathing. What? What is he? You yelp as he shifts to make eye contact with you. His eyes are yellow with black pupils. Shaking your leg a bit, you climb back out of the meteor. You wipe some sweat off your face with the back of both your hands before deciding to give up since you're drenched. You sit down to think things through. What the hell just happened? If it wasn't bad enough that you almost died from a falling space rock, now there was a _person_ inside this thing. What were people supposed to do in these situations? Did someone else see it and inform the authorities? Would authorities even come to investigate stuff like this? You grow frustrated as you think more about it before realizing the things that were actually important at the moment. The guy trapped and dying inside this huge astronomical oven!

You clear your throat and lean you head over the opening. "Hello?" You croak out. Nothing else is heard besides a dull echo, and you worry that maybe he died. Without a second thought you slide your way back in and crouch down, feeling for the body. When your hands touch a head of thick hair, they travel down to armpits and hoist him up. "Hey buddy?" Your voice cracks but you have more important matters at hand. A molasses moment passes, your patience earning you a pained moan from the limp form. If the circumstances had been different, you know you would've smiled then, but you don't because your heart is still trying to fly out of your chest.

Placing him slightly over your shoulder, you tell him to hold on as best as he can. Thin arms wrap around your neck and arm, barely pulling up any of the weight. Not that you cared much, the boy couldn't have been over 5"2; you towered over him at 5"9. You find a comfortable position before extending your arms and pulling yourself up. After a few tries, you manage to get up and sprawl out on your stomach, taking a moment to catch your breath. The guy beneath you shoves your arm off of him. Well that sure was nice of him.

"Hehehe…that was quite an adventure, huh?" You say, breathing hard, still.

"Whatever." He says back to you. You laugh a little bit and look over at him. Then you stop laughing.

You swallow a small lump in your throat before speaking up. "Sooo…you're an…an alien?" Your eyes thirstily start drinking in the sight of him. His skin a light, flawless gray; no freckles (could he get freckles?), nothing that seemed to be alien acne (did aliens get pimples?). Well it was flawed if you considered the cuts, which has red blood like humans, and what you guess are bruises. And the darker gray below his eyes. Oh! And his eyes have dark, heavy eyelashes. They are yellow, but not bright yellow, with dilated black pupils. His nose is slightly pushed in and rounded at the bottom, but in a good way. His lips are also gray, though a shade in-between his regular skin and just under his eyes.

Oh and he is very humanoid. Two arms, two legs, torso, a head and distinctly human face structure. Each arm with elbows and hands, each leg with knees and feet, chest rising and falling to his breathing.

"No, dumbass, I'm a pink alien thing in disguise who wants to pull a prank on you, and it's working pretty fucking well, might I say." He disdainfully glances at you then looks at the sky.

Not missing a beat, you say back, "Well then I'll be on my merry way and leave you here." You giggle despite yourself and you look back over at him. "Awh, buddy, I was only kidding around." You try to calm him down because he has tears pricking up in the corners of his eyes. They are strangely a light red, not quite pink.

"Don't act like I actually gave two shits about what you said. Maybe I'm kind of fucking IN PAIN and oh yea there's also the chance that I'm, I don't know, fucking DYING." He sits up and you sit up too, gawking at him. This alien boy was really the charmer. "How do you know troll, anyway?"

You ignore his wincing. "Troll?"

"Yea, troll. Could you be anymore stupid? How we're talking. The fucking language we're speaking. Jegus how do you not know the name of your own tongue?" His brows crease and eyes close out of frustration. Something in the back of your mind tells you that he wasn't going to thank you for saving him.

"Well…it's called English here on Earth. That's the planet you're on, by the way. Earth. And the pink alien you're talking to is called a human. Humans usually thank the person who saves them from death."

"Well, Human, I'm not thanking you because I have the shittiest life anyway and you only prolonged it, which isn't a thing people should go around doing." You sit there in shock after that.

Did he want to die? Was he trying to kill himself when he was in the meteor? You stop thinking because he's trying to stand up, trying being the key word. He falls back down face first, and flips onto his side. "Hey…Human? Can you get me out of this fucking sunlight? Trolls have sensitive skin and it really hurts."

"My name is John. John Egbert. Humans are just the species in general. So your species is called a Troll, huh?" You say, picking up the boy bridal style. You walk over to the edge and take a breath before sitting down again. Carefully, you slide down and when you land on the ground, your knees buckle and you fall over. You make sure you turn yourself before you hit the ground so that you won't crush him.

"Sorry!" You grunt out, standing up. You continue over to the woods, only a minute's worth of walking. Once there, you set his small frame down, up against a tree, and sit down to join him. "Sooo…" You start.

"Yes." He blurts out. You give him a confused look, which earns you more of an answer. "Yes, my kind are called trolls. Humans, as long as you follow the norm, seem to look like us a hell of a lot." He looks up for a minute, thinking. "The shit hole planet I'm from is called Alternia, and it's only partly my fucking fault I'm here."

You don't press for more, not wanting to upset the already angry troll. "Hey, what's your name? I told you mine, so you tell me yours!" You give him your best grin, hoping you don't look like a complete idiot. Wait why do you care if you look stupid?

"Karkat." He says. "Karkat Vantas." He reached up to scratch his head and you see his nails are the same yellow of his eyes. You also see an adorable set of nubby horns that look like big candy corns, only a little bit curved.

"Ermigerd!" You literally squeal, reaching up and touching Karkat's horns. "They're so cute, Karkat!" You smile wide and look at him. He looks like he's about to get sick. "Umm…"

Your cut off with a quick shove backwards, landing you on your back. He puts his hand over his mouth and curls up his legs a little bit. "Don't you EVER. Fucking touch. My fucking horns." He hisses at you. The hiss is strangely catlike, and you laugh to yourself about it.

"Sorry, I didn't know they hurt you." You sigh, sitting up.

"They don't." He scowls and blushes some, but you decide you don't want to know (oh fuck it, you know you do, but you don't want to press the poor guy). So instead you change the topic to something better.

"So um. How are your…injuries?" Honestly, you don't know the first thing about the troll in front of you, but you'll take a stab in the dark and say he's similar to humans.

"Not too bad. From what I can feel, which is pretty much fucking everything; I'd say that if I was on Alternia, I would actually survive." He keeps going before you can say anything. "And when will the human authorities get here and sell my dead ass to science or whatever the fuck they want it for, anyway?"

You're mildly shocked by him bluntly stating his death so easily. "Wait why would you die here though?" You pause for a minute, thinking. "And to be completely honest, I don't think they will come. It pretty much daylight out now, so no one probably even noticed you. Hehehe."

"Troll skin is sensitive to sunlight. It's even burning the fuck out of my skin through the trees. And it's a lot colder here. Jegus fuck how do humans even live like this?! …and then how'd you find me?" He looks at you from the corner of his eye, and you feel shivers run down your spine. You ignore it.

"I was taking a walk…nap thing out here and I almost got killed by the meteor." You take off you jacket and try to give it to him. He looks at you like you went batshit insane, so you decide to speak up. "For the sunlight and cold problem...hehehe." You awkwardly rub the back of your neck. "It'll keep you warmer and block some sunlight…"

"No dip shit, Egderp." He grabs it out of your hands without a single word of thanks. "But why would you want me alive?"

You find amusement in him struggling to put on your jacket with his back up against a tree. For a brief moment you allow yourself to check him out. You mean check out his clothes. Kind of baggy black turtleneck sweater (with a gray cancer symbol), black jeans (or the troll equivalent to jeans), and generic black shoes. Man did this guy like black or was this troll fashion? You suddenly remember the previously asked question and answer it smoothly. "Because I think you're kind of cool? I don't know. I mean who wouldn't want to keep their newfound alien buddy alive?" You blush some and laugh nervously, looking at him.

"Fine, whatever." You two sit there for a few more minutes in comfortable silence before Karkat speaks up again. "Why didn't you flip out? Most people I know would be flipping their shit if they met an alien. Of course everyone I know is a lowlife asshole. That's probably why I talk to them; to cover up how big of an asshole I am."

You sigh inwardly and the term "Negative Nancy" comes to mind. Maybe you'd tell him that later. "Again, Karkat, I don't really think I have an answer. I've watched a lot of ghost movies so I know how keeping your cool is supposed to be done. And in all fairness you didn't flip out when you saw an alien, either." He shrugs his reply.

"Don't you have something better to be doing than spending your day with some alien whose meteor almost killed you?" You take a few seconds before you get what he's implying; leave him the hell alone.

"Yea I guess OH SHIT BREAKFAST." You practically jump up and look back down at him. Judging from the bored look of his face, you find it safe to assume he has a general idea of what breakfast is. "Are you going to be okay here? I'll bring you back some food later. DON'T LEAVE WHEN I DO." The last part sounded needy, and you don't mind too much.

He stares up at you with a dumbfounded, blushing expression for a minute before looking away and blushing harder. "I'll be fine. Just bring me some fucking food or I'll have to resort to eating this tree or some shit like that." You nod and say bye, starting to walk away. You still manage to hear him say "And okay… I won't fucking leave…" and you smile giddily to yourself and you start jogging away.

* * *

**AN: woo hoo hoo. a day earlier than expected. thanks to the people whove followed, favorited, and reviewed so far :3 a special thanks to my friend double tap who has so generously agree to be my proofreading for now . i love you all so much for supporting me so far. ok so lets talk business. chapter 4 will probably be out of friday. BUT i dont have school wednesday so maybe if you guys are good you'll get more *wink* well thats all for now i think. be sure to review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

You walk in the front door, trying your best to make as little noise as possible. Not that it would matter, anyway. It's well past 9:30 and you know everyone is already awake and probably hadn't waited for you to get there for breakfast. You suck in a nervous breath and turn around.

Just and you thought, there was no need to be cautious. Everyone but Dave is sitting on the couch or chairs. They all look up at you and you start walking over.

"I believe you told me nine 'o'clock would be a good estimate for breakfast to be ready, John. Do you know how late you are?" Rose throws daggers at you with her eyes, and if that wasn't just a metaphor, then you'd be a bloody dead mess. _Karkat._

You immediately dismiss your thought, because you know he's okay and there for you. Well there for his own good, anyway. "Hehehe… I don't know? Around 9:30?" You guess.

Rose just shakes her head. "No. It's 9:50, John. There's some food for you in the microwave. Now before we shrug off this unusual event, I would like to know what caused such a grand delay." Oh geez, you didn't think you were that late. And what were you supposed to say about being late? Surely you couldn't tell them you met an alien, saved his life, and were going back to check on him later.

"Did any of you see the shooting star?" You ask, formulating a foolproof plan. Yea.

"Yea I did! It was so cool! I would tell you what I wished for but then it wouldn't come true." Jade giggles and you smile to yourself. Jade really is adorable, you think, and you like to view her as a little sister.

"Wasn't it awesome?" You temporarily get side tracked. Something in the back of your mind tells you this side track wasn't accidental and that this was a cover up to seem more casual. "I wished on it too, but I wouldn't want to ruin it for me, either. I was walking and-"

"John." Rose interrupts you. "I believe that you're avoiding the question." She crosses her arms and sighs, more in disappointment than annoyance.

"I was getting there, sheesh!" You hold up your hands in defense. "I was walking around the lake again. And well I saw the shooting star. And I thought 'Oh this is so cool. I need to get a better view!' So I climbed up a tree. Hehehe. But I kind of fell."

"You are such a derp." A husky voice says from the stairs. It's Dave, and he's still in his pajamas, appearing to have just woken up. He probably just did, since his voice was still hoarse. He lazily plops down on the couch next to Jade before continuing. "Who the heck is awake that early? And who the heck climbs a tree? You're like a bird, Egderp. Some awful, so very not majestic bird who gets up to feed her babies then falls out of a tree." The four of you decide to listen to Dave's shpeal to the end, not getting half of it. Were they always that bad in the morning, or is it just you?

Your dad clears him throat. "Go on, son."

You cast a weary glance at Dave. You'll get payback for these horrible extended metaphors someday. "So I fell out of the tree but it snagged my jacket…" You gesture to your chest, which only has a short sleeved shirt on it. "It kind of hurt, so I didn't want to go back up again. Besides, that jacket was getting too small for me, anyway." You pout a bit, knowing that looked really cute when you did it. Your face was genetically gifted with the perfect puppy dog face, and you were armed and ready to use it when ready. Maybe you'd try it out on Karkat. Only to get information from him, of course!

You look around the room, knowing at least half of your audience believes you. The blondes probably have their hunches, but like hell you'd say anything. "Okay!" Jade smiles. She stands up and walks into the kitchen, and in a few seconds you hear the microwave running. "I'm sure you're hungry after that! You and Dave can go eat. We put enough food on the plate for both of you."

"Thanks Jade." You smile back at her, then look over at Dave. "Let's go eat." You hear your dad say he and the girls were going to go wash the car as you walk into the kitchen.

Oh boy oh boy food. You really want to savor your first meal after almost dying a fiery death (but that wasn't traumatic, so maybe you're taking advantage of it), but you know you should hurry up and help your dad wash the car. You decide it was for the best that you eat at your normal pace.

The microwave still has two minutes on it. Damn, did Jade not know the powers of a microwave or was it a butt ton of food in there. Whatever. You sit down and the table and cross your arms. You settle your head down in your arms and close your eyes. You were kind of tired after all that. Maybe you'd take a nap during dinner, then find a way to sneak out with the reheated dinner tonight. Or you eat dinner, still act hungry, and get some snacks to go on a walk with you. Or…

Your eyes lazily flutter open when you hear the chair across from you squeak. You see Dave in the same position as you. With his sunglasses off. And he's looking at you.

Shivers run up your spine as you search the cherry red eyes in front of you. Hot damn. RED eyes. They were intimidating and stunning all at the same time. The blonde eyelashes on them caught a little bit of the artificial light overhead, delicately framing the piercing eyes. "Cool eyes, bro." You say monotonously. You stand up when the microwave beeps.

After collecting silverware for both of you and putting the plate down on the table, you dig in. Yum yum yum. Delicioso.

"Where's the salt?" Dave asks.

"Over on the counter." You say around a mouthful of eggs. Not exactly great reheated, but who the fuck even cares anymore.

You swallow hard after almost choking on eggs when you feel a hand running through your hair. "Dave!" You stand up and turn around. Bad move. He kicks the chair out of the way and pin you up against the table. His hands are on top of yours, still on the table. He can definitely see you leaning away from him, but it doesn't seem to be affecting his motives that much.

"John." He says coolly, leaning in. "Kiss me."

When you don't obey he puts his hand on your back and pushes you the rest of the way up. His lips are on yours. Shit. You try your best to pull away but his arm is surprisingly strong. He separates you two after a minute and backs up some.

"…Dave…" You manage. You look down at your feet, the frown on your face deepening to the point where your shin scrunches up some. "I told you I don't like you like that." You run your hand through your hair, but stop when you think about his hand being there a minute earlier. You turn to leave, but his hand grabs yours. You sigh, turning to face him.

"Egbert. Listen. You don't even have to _like_ me. All I want is kissing." He shrugs. "Just try it out once. No 'Ewh man germs', John. Just. Pretend I'm a chick or something. Please." His poker face is temporarily replaced with one of hurt, but the second you pick up on it, it changes.

Your brows furrow in frustration, but to end this you oblige. You lean forward, and he meets you halfway. You close your eyes and try your best not to grimace as his lips touch yours. This doesn't even feel nice. And you're stiff.

Well this isn't going as Dave planned. He tries his best to kiss you back, but all you can think about is how this is so wrong. He pulls away and gives you a look. "I'm a female." He pushes himself back on you and you picture some pretty girls from school.

Still not helping. Damn. You just need to finish this up and head out to see Karkat. You relax a little bit and let the thoughts of this morning float back into your mind. Pristine waters, a calming blanket of cool air. Flaming meteors almost killing you. Okay stop. Back on track now; happy thoughts. Saving Karkat, talking to him, learning about him. His glowing gray skin, dulled out cupids bow, the arch of his thin and chapped lips.

You find yourself kissing Dave back a whole lot more than you mean too. To hell with it, you decide. Nothing else about this morning makes sense anyway, so why should this?

He moans against your mouth, almost snapping you back into reality. _Candy corn nubby horns._ You reach up and grab both sides of his face. _Luminescent yellow eyes_. He licks your bottom lip and you open up. _Black, messy, puffy hair._ Your hands find their way to his hair. _Small delicate frame_. He deepens the kiss and explores your mouth. _Set of pearly, razor sharp teeth_.

You pull away hastily and try to regain your breath. Dave still has a far off look in his eyes that tells you he's still hanging onto your taste. Okay that last thought was a little gross, even if he was a girl.

"Hehehe…" You laugh nervously, rubbing the back of your head. Well what to do now.

He smirks at you. "Pretty into for someone who won't admit their inner homosexuality." He brushes past you and picks up his sunglasses from the table.

"I'm not a homosexual, Dave!" You say out of habit. He used to tease you when you were younger about being gay and to him at least, that was your catch phrase. "You told me to picture someone else and that's what I did!"

You instantly regret the words and are tempted to slap your hand over your mouth. You don't because that would look suspicious. Oh well he still picks up on it. "Who'd you think of?"

"Uhhh…" You trip over thoughts in your head. Shit, were you thinking about Karkat? No, you weren't. Okay fuck it yes you were. But only because he's an alien and you were curious! Buuut then again you were enjoying that a little bit too much. Oh shit you still haven't answered Dave. "No one." You decide to look cute and turn around. Perfect plan. Act like you like someone else and maybe you guys can drop it.

"Is he pretty?" He gives you a poker face that you don't see.

"Well kinda but HOLY FUCK DAVE YES SHHHEEE IS PRETTY." You blush up and walk out of the room.

"Dave Strider, helping derps realize their burning passion for dick since 1996." He follows you out into the living room, where you both sit down on the couch. "You taste like disgusting eggs and morning breath dude. You should consider mouth wash."

"Ughh." You groan. "I got up first thing this morning. Who even brushes their teeth before breakfast? Just how HIGH do you even have to BE just to DO something like that…?" You drawl out. You like the reaction you get; and chuckling cool kid.

You sit there in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, before the two of you get up to aid to the ongoing automobile laundering.

You're still confused about pretty much everything. For Pete's sake you're not even sure if John Egbert is still your name. But at least you and Dave are still bros, you think.

* * *

**AN: Im so sorry dont kill me ;A; ive been getting sick a butt ton and have been BOMBED with homework. im gonna try to get another chapter out on wednesday or early thursday. then im out of the country for a week and a half (I might type while gone, dunno yet.) well i love you all so much and im glad you guys like it and are being patient! byebye!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

You sigh and continue staring at your ceiling, head leaning back. God, you are bored. So bored.

Earlier today you decided if you took another walk after being late this morning it might look weird. Which leads to your current situation. You are waiting till everyone is asleep to get up and sneak out of the house. Ordinarily you would freak over such a scandalous activity, but for some reason all you can think about is how cool this is going to make you and how impressed Karkat will be. If he stayed there of course.

It's only 10 pm and Dave is sitting right next to you. Damnit why can't he just go to bed. You make a mental note to go to sleep on the couch to avoid confrontation when you get back.

"Hey Dave. When are you going to bed?" You ask. Only after saying this do you realize the mistake you made. He'll probably read into it too much (or the amount a normal person would) and question you.

"Why? Wanna sleep with me?" Okay definitely not the type of questioning you had in mind. You debate not answering, but come up with a plan. Oh all these plans that are working out for you have to be boosting your prankster gambit.

"Maybe. But only if you go to sleep. It's like I'm Santa Clause." You state flatly. Hey look you even slipped a good metaphor in there; Strider should be pleased. You are proven right with a shiteating smirk.

He gets up and pats you on the head. "See you tomorrow." He moves his face and hands in a way that would imply him winking at you. "Or later tonight." And with that he leaves. That was surprisingly easy. Too easy.

Enough with this talk of easy stuff. Your heart beat picks up some. Fuck what you thought earlier; now is the time for your freak out. Well you guess you aren't really flipping out. Your stomach just has butterflies and you have nasty nervous sweat on your palms. You quickly wipe off the sweat on your jeans and wait. If you leave right away then Dave might hear you. So you're waiting to make sure he is pretty tired, if not asleep. You pick up your iPod and turn it on. Well, you may as well do something productive. Like watch anime.

You smile stupidly and click on the little CrunchyRoll app. Hell yea. You figure you may as well watch that anime your school friends won't shut up about. Fairy Tail, was it? You find it fairly quickly and click on it.

Half an hour later you're sure the creator had a thing for sex appeal, and that Gray Fullbuster's hair is absolutely the most magnificent thing you've even seen. It reminds you of something, but you can't quite put your finger on it. You shrug off the notion of awesome haired guys actually existing. Although you like to believe your hair was exceptionally nice. Wait where were you going with this again? Oh yea, the plan.

You shove your iPod in your pocket and stand up. As quietly as you can, you creep into the kitchen and begin grabbing food. You're not really sure what yoru grabbing, because you're not risking turning the light on, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. You creep out of the kitchen and over to the door. You had thought about going through a window, but came to the conclusion that that would be melodramatic and too much of a hassle. The front door has a tendency to creak, so you open it swiftly, producing a short lived squeal. The same applies to the door shutting.

You walk more briskly than usual, with adrenalin pouring through your veins. Good god, this was cool. After you exit your neighborhood, you pick up the pace even more, unable to wait much longer. Also because it's fucking freezing outside and this is a good excuse to warm up. You reach the lake in no time at all, and you start circling around to the other side, but not without admiration.

The water was like a pool of shiny black, reflecting the stars into wavy little balls of light. When the wind blows some, the ripples look like silk being smoothed out and wrinkled again and again. Not that you actually know if silk would actually look like that; you don't own any silk or things make out of silk.

You arrive at the border of the forest and look into it. Blackness. Shit, you forgot to bring a flashlight. No worries, you have your trusty dusty flashlight app on your iPod! You turn the brightness up all the way then click on that app. You shine it around. Well man, this does absolutely fuck all.

A few rocks and branches make you stumble as you walk into the woods, and you take a moment to look around. Karkat probably wouldn't have gone far, with his injuries and all. If he ventured further, though, you wouldn't be able to go in much deeper. You still wanted to find your way out of here, after all.

"Karkat…" You whisper. The sound of silence surrounds you. Quite freaks you out some, so based on your previous though, you start humming Sound of Silence in between calls for Karkat. "Karkat." You start saying in your regular voice. "Dude, where are you?" You try to recall what he was wearing earlier, but it doesn't come to you. All you know is that they were dark colored.

"Karkat!" You say a little more ferociously. You don't want to come off as aggressive, but the dark, soundless woods are starting to get to you. It's like motherfucking slenderman. That last thought really does a number on your mental status and you can feel yourself shaking. The game didn't bother you that much…but what if he was real! Somewhere in the back of your mind you know he isn't real, but the idea of him being real still taunts you. What if Karkat was slenderman coming to get you?!

Still mumbling Karkat's name, you walk around a little bit until you hear breathing. Relief and fright flood through you. You close your eyes and listen to the breathing. Okay, it sounds more like sleeping breathing, not scary faceless killer breathing.

It takes 2 or 3 more minutes, but you finally look behind a tree to find a sleeping troll. You sit down next to him, and instead of waking him up right way, you stare at him. Not in a creepy way though, more of in awe and fascination. At least you hope, anyway. His eyelashes barely touch the skin below his eyes, his lips are slightly chapped (and also opened), his eyebrows are still knit in anger. For some reason your brain decides to remind you of kissing Dave earlier and you blush up. Okay, enough examining the alien.

"Karkat, wake up." You move his shoulders in hopes to wake him, since talking doesn't seem to work. His face relaxes and he lazily opens his eyes. The stare a nothing for a second, then focus onto you. He gives you a lethargic smile. Which is surprisingly fucking adorable. He takes a deep breath and blinks a few more times before shifting his face into a scowl.

"Get away from me, Egbert." You scoot away from him, but not much. "I slept for a pretty fucking long time." He says, looking around.

"Not really. Probably only a few hours." You shrug. You didn't think a few hours of rest was unreasonable.

He looks at you like you were an alien. Oh wait, you kind of were. "What the fuck do you mean? How does time work here?" He looks confused and vulnerable, but only for a split second.

"Uh…" You start. Really, you've never given it much thought, and have no way of explaining it. "Okay for in a day there are 24 hours. It's pretty much half light and half dark, but the dark hours are 6 in the morning, and 6 at night, so-"

"I get it." He interrupts you. "We have the same concept of hours. Only we have 2 days of light and 2 days of dark." He looks up and you and searches your eyes for something.

You give him a nod and smile. "Well even if we did have the same 2 day thing as you do, then you still could've gotten here when the 2 days of light was almost up, right?" You laugh a little bit and his eyes narrow.

"Fuck you." He pauses before continuing. "I'm fucking starved." He gives you an expectant look which kind of gets on your nerves. You answer him by point down to your lap. Your legs are crisscross and you had thrown the food in the little space between your legs.

"Hm…" You pick up some of the food to see exactly what you took. A bag of plain chips, a snickers bar, a box of apple juice (damn you, Dave, damn you), a fruit by the foot (damn you, Betty Crocker, damn you), and a peach that got bruised on the way.

Without hesitation, Karkat lunges forward and grabs the bag of chips. He stares at it and hands it to you. "Open it." You oblige and watch his as he eats. What would it be like eating chips with fangs? What are his molars like? Ya know, who even cares? "They're salty and horrible." He tosses the wrapper aside and you hand his the snickers bar next.

"This will be good. It's like a human delicacy." You laugh. Karkat successfully opens up the packaging for the snickers bar, and takes a bite. Which he immediately spits out.

"Good, my ass. This shit's fucking nasty." He hands it back to you. "If you really fucking love that garbage that much, well there you go. Don't get the fucking wrong idea, though. I don't even remotely like you. Just my hatred for that outweighs my hatred for you."

You two sit there like that for a while longer; him eating and criticizing, you watching and observing. You want to call him your friend, or talk to him about his planet, but he already hates you and you feel like he won't spill the hypothetical beans anyway. Then again, if he hates you, it wouldn't matter if he got mad and didn't want to spill the hypothetical beans, anyway.

"So."

"So?"

"So why are you on Earth?" You couldn't find a polite way to say it, so you say it so it sounds bored, not forced.

"Because it's where the meteor landed." He's being a smartass and you don't like it.

"Okay, smartass." Two can play at the jerk game. Okay that sounds kind of bad. Oh well. "Why _aren't_ you on your planet?"

He picks up the peach last and idly looks down at it. "I'm a mutant." You don't have anything to say so you don't. His manner shifts from raging to melancholy. "I'm not allowed to live there. Never was. People said I was lucky I got spared from death and got to be exiled." He looks you in the eye and doesn't flinch. "But I think this is worse than death."

You suck in a breath and hold it until it gets uncomfortable, then breathe back out. Damn. This guy has a lot holding him down. "What do you mean mutant?"

You're surprised when you get an answer. "We have a hemospectrum. Our blood color varies. Fuchsia is royalty, and rust red is as low as you can get. But I'm a mutant. I have candy red blood."

"Well...that's stupid. No one should be ranked by something they can't control. But hey. All humans have red blood, too." He looks up at you with a spark in his eyes. You think its amazement.

You can't think about it too much, though.

Because he lunges at you with notably sharp claws.

* * *

**AN:** **Im so sorry guys this took a long time i know TT-TT i was away for a while. im going to make it up to you by getting another chapter out by wednesday! thank you guys so much for reading this, too. like i thought people were going to hate it but im just happy i get to make some people smile :) as always, love you guys! byeee**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

You just sit there with wide eyes as blood runs down your cheek. What the hell was that for? You really want to get up and walk away and pretend this didn't happen. The small little shot of adrenaline wears off and you feel the stinging pain on your face.

"So you aren't just fucking around with me." Karkat states and leans back against the tree. He is presenting himself in a way that would seem casual, unapologetic. Normal?

You're going to have none of that. "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WAS THAT FOR?" You yell at him.

"I was seeing if you were just fucking lying to me is all! Jegus fuck you act like it's the end of the world or some shit. News flash. It's a fucking cut. Get over yourself." His nose scrunches up and he flips you off.

"If you had, I don't know, maybe ASKED first I'd let you see my blood! I thought you were going to kill me! And yea, sure, it's a cut. But seriously I snuck out of the house to bring you the food, and now I have even more shit to deal with. All 'John, how'd you get that cut on your face?' and I'll be all 'Dunno! Just woke up with it, herp da derp.'" You inhale sharply and breathe slowly out of your nose. Just calm down. Maybe where he comes from, this would be normal.

You two sit there quietly for a while. He doesn't seem that phased by your yelling, but you feel kind of bad about it. You lift your hand up to try to wipe off some of the blood, but it's all over and only drips onto your shirt. Damnit you're wearing a white shirt.

Wordless, Karkat starts eating the peach. And then stops. "John, what is this?" He looks up at you with big eyes.

"Calling me by my first name now, huh?" You practically spit back. Sure, you felt bad about yelling at him. But that doesn't mean you're not still pissed, so you still give him crap. At least as much crap as your overbearingly nice heart can handle.

"Egbert. Just fucking answer the question. Don't give me this bullshit. It's not my fault humans are small, weak, blubbering assholes." He takes a breath and looks at you again. No, you won't talk to him if he's not going to be at least somewhat sensitive. He sighs and scratches his head, looking down at the peach. "But if it's any consolation, I'm fucking sorry that I'm better at attacking than I thought. I'm also sorry that you have pathetic reflexes and a short ass temper."

You suppose that's the closest to a sincere apology you'll get. And although you still don't feel any better about at this, you'll tell him anyway. But really, why should you care about an apology from this guy? "It's called a peach. Why?" You feel the collar of your shirt dampening. You know that you should get home to put some gauze and Neosporin on the gash, but you for some reason you don't want to.

"It's fucking delicious." He proceeds to chew hungrily, and rather fiendishly, at it. Your initial thought is to be kind of grossed out by such violent gnawing. But actually it's kind of cute how Karkat is enthusiastic about something as trivial as a peach. Just a peach is making him happy, when before he was speaking so lowly of his own life. You feel your anger at him evaporate and you relax.

"I can get you more, if you really want them. They aren't that expensive. Hehehe…" You smile at him.

He stops eating and stares at you with those yellow eyes. Damn. They were REALLY cool looking at night. "Yes…" He grumbles. "Yes, please." He resumes eating the little bits and pieces left on the peach before chucking the pit in a random direction.

Well, now it was time to get down to business. "Okay, I think I seem trustworthy enough. And I fed you. You should trust those you give you free food when you have nowhere to go. Unless you're Hansel and Gretel. Then-"

"Does this conversation have a fucking point?" He crosses his arms and sighs. It's the same kind of sigh Rose uses a lot; disappointment or impatience rather than frustration. You smile to yourself.

"Yes, it does!" You pout back at him. For now, you keep those killer puppy dog eyes in check. You don't want to use them yet. "I'm just trying to ask if maybe, you would… I don't know… Tell me about how you got here and why and stuff. All that jazz." You shrug and look at him. He doesn't look convinced.

He reaches up and scratches his chin for a second. "Meet me out here tomorrow and I'll tell you. I'm seriously fucking tired right now." He backs up his claim with a very forced yawn.

"But Karkaaat!" You whine. "I don't feel like waiting until tomorrow." Your head tilts to the side. He's practically begging for you to use it.

"Does it look like I give a shit about your wants and needs? Fucking no. Just bring me some more peaches."

John Egbert puppy dog eyes; activated.

Power level; most certainly over 9000.

God, you're a dork.

The two of you stare evenly at each other; his eyes in a wicked glare. You wonder if he's holding back strangling you or if he's holding back answering you. This is it, John. Hold your ground. Karkat here is like a final boss in a video game and- oh fuck you Strider getting all these bad metaphors in your head. "Uh…" There we go, he's cracking. "Egbert?" He's the first to look away. You win. Fuck yes.

"Tellll meeee." To hit the nail in the coffin, you flash him a toothy childish grin. "You know you want tooo."

"Don't go feeling all fucking smug, fuckass. I'm just telling you so you'll get off my damn case about it." He does a facepalm times two combo and his voice is muffled by his hands. But you can still hear it and understand it. "Okay. So I already told you about blood colors and shit like that. And how I'm a reject from my society. Well here's a little bit of a fucking backstory; whenever we're laid, we have to go through these trials, and-"

"WHAT. Laid?"

He removes his hands from his face, gives you his best _are you shitting me right now, Egbert?_ look and does yet another facepalm times two combo. "I don't even want to know about the repugnant way humans reproduce, you don't bother wasting your fucking breath." He sighs and puts his hands in his lap. His head leans back against the tree. "Yes. We're laid by our Mother Grub."

"Hehehe…okay." Woah. Talk about weird misunderstandings there.

He rolls his eyes before continuing. "So anyway, yea. When we're wrigglers, like baby grubs, we go through these trials in something called the brooding caverns. Long story short, only the toughest survive, and redbloods like me aren't supposed to make it through. If we do, we're supposed to be killed. Some fucking how I made it out alive. Once I was old enough to understand, I realized it was probably a bad thing that I got to keep my life. What's the point of fucking living if you have to fucking hide yourself away from the rest of your fucking society? It's pathetic and miserable. I really hated myself then. I still do, but it's not as bad. I made some worthless failures that I dare called my friends. And I realized I'm not horrifyingly repulsive because of my blood color; it's just cause I'm fucking like that." He draws his legs up to his chest and buries his face in his knees.

When the hell did this become some huge talk about feelings? AND WAIT. What the hell were you supposed to say to him?!

"I don't find you disgusting, Karkat." Is what you settle on. This guy seems to have been through more than he's giving himself credit for. He's brushing off these things like they were everyday occurrences but still gets hurt by them. It's enough to break your heart.

You see him nod and he keeps going. "This guy named Jack stabbed me one day and my blood color was revealed. The Condesce decided to spare me for whatever reason. Maybe because she knew it'd be too easy to kill me, and I wouldn't be an example. Or maybe she was actually trying to be fucking nice because I'm friends with someone of her blood caste. But it's probably the first one, because she's total fucking heartless bitch. Well that's all there really is to my story. As for how I wound up here. I have not a fucking clue. I would doubt they'd have purposely sent me to a planet where I can actually live. But knowing her she might have some totally fucked up plan. I guess we'll find out."

You're suddenly well aware of how tired you are of hearing explanations and fight back a yawn. It'd be rude to yawn after hearing such a sad story. How can people live in a place like that? You feel very sheltered and warm here on earth, and the problems you thought you were having seem to lift off your shoulders.

"John." He's being serious; he calls you John. "Are you…crying?"

You reach up and touch your cheeks and while they're wet, yes, you also know that you weren't crying. It was because you were holding back a really big yawn. But you can't perfectly well tell him you wanted to yawn, right? "Hehehe…I guess I am. Sorry 'bout that." You fill the silence with nervous laughter.

Karkat stretches his legs back out and looks over to the side. He's turning red. "You're the first person I've ever seen feel emotion over my story. None of my friends ever cared that I would never fucking talk to them and always kept secrets. They'd act like it was nothing special. Which I guess it kind of fucking wasn't with a bloodthirsty and bitter culture. But…" He looks at you. "I guess I still kind of wanted them to fucking ask. Show some kind of concern for me. Have them worry about me for even a fucking minute, ya know?" His voice cracks and you finally meet his eyes.

AWWWWWW. If you thought that your puppy dog eyes could knock someone out, this guy's crying face was enough to kill a man. All that put aside, what were you supposed to do about a crying alien that spilled all his secrets to you, including ones not even his friends knew.

Without much thought, you scoot over next to him and give him a big hug. Your arms wrap around his thin shoulders and you think of when you first pulled him out of the meteor. His arms go around to your back and stay there. He puts his head in the crook of your neck and holds you. You feel so fucking terrible about yelling at him earlier.

"It's okay Karkat…It's okay…" You smooth out his hair in the back while he shakes in your hold. "Shhhh…" You whisper. He relaxes a little bit and you smile. Maybe he'd finally let you out of this weird embrace. Not that you really minded. No, if you had to have an opinion, you'd say this is actually kind of nice just sitting here like this.

You close your eyes. In that moment the only thing important is making him feel better.

* * *

**AN: Here it is guys, yay. With all the yaoi anime/manga ive been reading i haaaad to include something cute. That's all there really is to say on the matter. Two more thing. Some did point out to me that there's not_ supposed_ to be stories written from the "you" perspective (what is that even called?). So idk if the site will take this down or not but i would just repost it anyway? AAANNDD in case you did read my little shpeal before, the chapters will be regular now, on weekends, so long as my schedual permits (FUCK my schedual i'll cancel my shit for you guys). As always, thanks for reading, I love you!  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

You're walking out of the woods; heart pounding in your chest. Why wouldn't it just leave you alone and quit beating so fast? You try your best to forget about it. Instead you think of what just happened. After he had quit crying he just kind of let you go and fell asleep up against the tree. Your plan doesn't go according to plan and brain commands your heart to speed up again. Stupid brain.

It's only a smidge darker out now than it was when you left your house, so it shouldn't be way too late.

In no time at all you're back at your house. Funny, you don't remember Rose's light being on when you left earlier. Shit. May as well face the music. You know it's pointless, but you quietly open the door and step in. The living room is still dark. Maybe Rose was just up reading or talking to Jade, and didn't actually notice you were gone at all.

You cross your fingers and walk over to the kitchen. Once there you pick up some paper towels and turn on the water. Can't have you waking up in the morning with blood all over you, can we? You dampen a few of the paper towels and bring them to your face. It feels nice and cool; you didn't realize that it was warmer than usual. Wouldn't that mean it was infected, or getting infected? The neosporin you'll take care of in the morning. You wash your hands and throw out the paper towels. Ok, almost all cleaned up. You slip your shirt off and walk back into the living room. There are no spare garments lying around on the floor, so you go upstairs.

Some of the stairs creak on your way up, and each time it happens you freeze up before continuing at an impossibly slow pace. If Dave had seen you right now, even he would've been laughing his ass off. But he isn't, so you take your caution very seriously until you're at the top. Letting out a small breath you didn't know you had been holding, you go into your room. Dave is asleep on his bed and relief floods through you. You sneak across the room to get a new shirt, and put the bloodied one in the drawer.

You know that you'll have to do the laundry to avoid questions from your dad on Sunday. Wait was today already Sunday? After slipping into the clean shirt you decide to check the time on you iPod; it's only 11:45. Close enough to midnight to consider Sunday. Putting your glasses on the nightstand, you snuggle into your bed and close your eyes. Damn. You still had to wake up at 7 to go on your routine walks. Otherwise dad will know something's up. It only takes you a few more minutes of thinking about peaches to send you off to sleep.

* * *

You stretch out your legs, a little bit sore from walking more than you're used to. When you take in a deep breath it hurts your back from having slept on it wrong. Damnit, that hurt. Your hand rubs your eyes than reflexively reaches for your glasses but they aren't there.

"Looking for these?" You blink the blurriness away to reveal a face with sunglasses on it hovering above you. A quiet _mm-hmm_ is your answer. "I don't know if I should give them to you or not. Santa didn't visit last night." He smirks and dangles the glasses just out of reach.

"Dave. I really don't feel like putting up with you or your shitty shenanigans this morning." You yawn and sit up. Honestly, you were tired, and had places to be. Couldn't he just get over the fact that you did NOT want to kiss him. Jesus, you get into it one time and he acts like you're tied to him with some red string, or whatever they say in sappy romance movies. You grab a fistful of Dave shirt and pull him in close enough to you to snatch your glasses back.

"Watch out, we got a fucking alliteration badass over here." He _hmph_s and sits on your bed, arms crossed. "You don't have to ruin everything Egbert."

"Dave, how many times do I have to tell you that saying memes out loud, more so even in a conversation, is extremely uncool." You stretch out your legs again and realize that you're still wearing your jeans…and shoes. Damnit, can you even get any more stupid?

"Says the idiot who actually says them." He has a point.

"Well I didn't say I was cool, did I? Nor am I _trying_ to be." You shrug. Fuck him. That comeback was awesome. And definitely un-top-able. You should really stop making your own words.

"I say them for ironic purposes." He poker faces back at you and you really want to hit him. Instead you suppress the urge and settle for shoving him off the bed. Serves the prick right.

While he's distracted with the 'shoving off the bed' ruse (Would that even be a ruse? Well it is now.) You kick your shoes off under the covers. You don't remember whether or not you had been wearing shoes when talking to him last night, but if you hadn't been it wouldn't be wise to let him see that you had put shoes on.

"Egbert, what the fuck?" He stands up and gives you a death glare; you feel shivers run down your spine even with the shades there to block most of the animosity out. Hehehe…hehehe? Wait what's he doing? Why do you even bother asking anymore?

He pushes you back onto your bed so you're lying down and now he's over top of you. "Dave. I really need to be going." You put your hand on his chest and try to shove him off. It doesn't work those and he just puts more weight on you. Why does this have to happen _now_?

He leans down until your mouths are only centimeters apart. "You haven't done anything with me since yesterday." You look down at his lips right before he touches them to yours to see that they're in a smile. He was really enjoying himself, wasn't he?

Only ten seconds in and his licking at your lips, so you open up. His tongue invades your mouth and you hold back a little moan. You didn't have time for this. Nonchalantly you reach into your pocket and grab your iPod to check the time. It's only 7:15, good. Maybe he'd only want to make out for like 5 minutes. Then you could be on your merry way to go see Karkat.

Your chain of thoughts is wrecked when he separates and looks down at you. "You aren't kissing back." He slides his shades off and looks down at you. "But you were just a minute ago. What's up?"

"Hehehe…" You laugh nervously. Shit, man. What were you going to say? "Well. You do know that I don't have any genuine romantic feelings toward you, right?" He cocks his head to the side. "It's just that, if you like me, I don't want to be leading you on your anything is all. Plus I really should go on my wa-"

He interrupts you with a quick peck. "It's fine, Egbert. I know you don't. I didn't say you needed to like me." He smiles seductively again. "All you need to do is like my body." What the fuck? People don't even TALK like that in real life. Hey look he's kissing you again.

Sighing inwardly, you kiss back, neglecting the thoughts coming to your mind. All your brain is telling you to think of is how wrong this is, but after what happened yesterday you're learning to disregard what your brain tells you to do. You settle for thinking of other things. Like Karkat. Karkat, get the fuck out of your head; you don't belong there right now. Then what does belong in your head? Nothing, you guess.

After a few minutes you get bored, and are ready to tell Dave that it's really time to call it quits. But he stops attacking your mouth for you, and moves to your cheek. "What happened here…?" He breathes against your cheek before licking it. Damnit Dave.

"Yea I really don't kno-!" He licks your cheek and down to your neck. Your breath hitches and you grab his shoulders. "Dave. Stop." You can feel your face heating up and heart beating faster a whole lot more than necessary. His tongue drags along your collar bone, leaving a thin trail of spittle. This is kind of disgusting, but you just want to see how far this will progress. Or maybe you kind of like it. No. You don't.

His hands pull down your covers some and his hands slip under your shirt. This needs to end. He comes up again to kiss you again, sucking slightly on your tongue. You can feel yourself getting slightly hard. This isn't good. "Dave. No. That's enough. I don't want to do anything else." He ignores you again and dips down, licking your chest. His leg goes in between your legs and pushes up against you.

"DAVE." With some adrenalin, you sit up and push him to the other end of the bed. "I said stop…" You slip your shoes back on and, without bothering to bring your phone or even change clothes, exit the room. You stomp down the stairs and see Rose and Jade asleep on the couch. Thank god they were asleep.

You open the front door and leave. You really want to slam the door but don't.

* * *

You get over to the woods faster than usual; you had powerwalked through the neighborhood and ran the last little bit. You guess leaving like that might raise some questions, and create an even weirder situation with Dave tonight, but the fucks you could potentially give are nowhere to be found.

When you go to check your iPod again for the time, it's dead. It has to be at least 7:45. If you were actually thinking straight whenever Dave was trying to…well…do Dave stuff with you, then you might actually know a better time estimate. Seriously though, you said no. Shouldn't he have respected that? You run a hand through your hair.

"Karkat?" You call. Shit. You didn't bring him anything to eat this morning.

"It's sunny." He complains. Following the sound of his voice, you find him quickly. At least he was awake this morning. He's lying down next to what is probably the same tree as yesterday morning and last night. Your jacket is covering up most of his curled up form, but the very top of his head is sticking out. "I'm hungry."

You frown. "Sorry. I got kind of pissed off this morning and stormed out of my house without getting anything before I left." He peaks out from under the jacket and throws daggers at you with his eyes.

"You actually get pissed off? Well fuck me silly, didn't think you had it in you." He shifts so he's lying on his back. "Too bad you went and did it when it actually mattered. Just a hungry innocent fucking alien life on the line here."

Your eye twitches a little bit and you smiley a little bit too nicely. "You're one to talk, Mr. Yell at Every Last Thing and Say 'Fuck' Every Other Word." You laugh stupidly for the dramatic affect. "I'll be back later with food."

"Remember the peaches." He says flatly, staring up and the underside of the trees. You follow his gaze and, without finding anything interesting, lay down a few feet away from him. You feel kind of bad for him having nothing to do out here all day besides look around.

When you sigh you see your breath and it finally hits you; you're freezing your ass off. Oh well, you don't want to go back home yet. You let your eyes close; maybe you could fit in a nap.

"What's wrong?" You vaguely hear Karkat say.

"I'll tell you in a little bit..." And with that you fall asleep.

* * *

**AN: hey guys :D Im really happy with all the people who like this. Thank you soo much again! So lets see here, I really need to pick out days to go back and fix some things in other chapters; grammer, spelling, and a few minor things. Maybe wednesday. Thank you for all the reviews with helpful critisism, pointing out some of the errors I made, or just saying you like the story; they mean a lot to me! Now Im sure we've all heard of whose headed up the east coast, and she's supposed to pass (like almost spot on) where I am. I'll definitely still write, and even upload using a school computer if I have to ^u^ love you dudes! byyeee  
**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Your eyes open up, but then immediately close from the harsh sunlight. How long were you asleep? Why were you asleep? Oh yea, that's right, Dave. You start stretching out your muscles and to be honest it feels great. Your fingers and toes are numb, and one of your ears has stinging pain, but that would change once you got up and moving. You sit up, rubbing your eyes and yawning. The small little tears that form in your eyes from the yawn are extremely cold, and you realize for the first time that half of your body (as well as your face) are strangely warm. You look down next to you.

Well shit, man. How is a teenage boy supposed to react to this kind of thing? You guess you're making kin of a big deal out of it in your mind.

Next to you is Karkat's sleeping form, curled up. And looking all adorable. Ok, stop it brain. Your brain doesn't stop and keeps thinking those thoughts. But it's not like you can really help it. The normally guarded and raging guy is so sweet and defenseless looking.

You note that he had put your jacket across both of you. Maybe he really did have a heart after all. Even though you already knew he did, after he had gotten depressed about being a mutant. This was different emotion, though. It wasn't a mad, indifferent, or sad. It was caring, or at the very least, showing some pity. It warms your heart a little bit and you smile.

With nothing better to do, you look closely at his face and hands; the only skin that's showing on him. It's only been one full day since you pulled him out of the meteor, and the cuts and bruises he had are almost healed up. You feel relieved. Speaking of the meteor, you didn't notice it when you came into the woods this morning. Carefully, you scoot out from underneath the jacket. If you had fallen asleep in a sunnier spot, you could warm up faster, but that option was ruled out by the fact that troll skin didn't exactly like Earth weather. Oh well.

You stand up and finish stretching, and after a few minutes of wiggling around your fingers and toes, you're ready to go. First things first though. You sit back down for a second and cover up Karkat the rest of the way. After all, when you sat up it uncovered him some. You blush for who knows what reason, but tell yourself you're just returning the favor. You get up again and walk away, wanting to investigate the meteor more now that it might be cooled down some.

It's a short walk out of the woods; only two minutes; but it's dense enough that you can't see Karkat anymore. Part of you is disappointed. You don't know what the other part is.

Once out though, you can't find the meteor. Which is really saying something, because that thing stuck out like a sore thumb yesterday. Really, where the hell could it have even gone? You circle around the lake once, twice, just searching. The only sign it was ever even there was is the burn mark and indent in the ground. Even that is unusual; the grass is already growing there. With god awful Washington weather, the grass that grows around here takes it good old time, so why is this grass springing up the next day? You bend down to feel it. It's soft.

"EGBERT." You squeak and jump up really fast. It's only Karkat, but it still scared the living daylight out of you.

You turn around casually. "H-Hey Karkat… Good afternoon!" You laugh nervously and scratch the back of your head. Why was this awkward again? Oh yea that's right you two had an unconscious cuddle fest in the middle of the woods.

He puts one hand on his hip and just stares at you. How can one guy go from being the most precious thing in the world to looking oddly dangerous and sexy? He may have had bags under his eyes, but they were still a nice shade of yellow. His mouth was in a pout that was something Hollywood star's wished they could pull off. And he was finally standing on his own, so you got to see his slender, short, and actually kind of feminine figure. His shirt bung loosely and at about mid-thigh; his jeans fitted well, but not too tight. And to add just a pinch of the cuteness your jacket was throw over top of his perfectly styled bed head.

Your pulse quickens and you can feel your face getting warmer. Instead of telling yourself to stop thinking the thoughts, you just take a mental picture to look at later. You weren't denying it this time, he looks drop dead gorgeous. Oh yea wasn't there supposed to be a conversation going on here?

"Um." You smile and break eye contact. This was a weird feeling for you. Besides Dave's eyes, you've never really found men that attractive before. You swallow. "I was just about to get going, so-"

"EGBERT." He repeats. "Get over here. We haven't even talked this morning." You throw him your best innocently confused expression. You really want out of here. To add to the affect you tilt your head to the side. "You just took a nap after being all pissed off, and right before you fell asleep you said you'd tell me why you had a pole up your ass."

You swallow again. "Hehehe. I did… didn't I?" How would you put it? That your best _male_ friend had been trying to hook up with you? "Well, you see, my friend Da-"

"EGBERT." You jump a little bit again. "I told you to get the fuck over here." He turns around and starts walking away. You sigh and follow after him.

You both sit down under a tree. Now you aren't sure whether or not it's the same one. "Ok. So it was a birthday about a week ago, so my three best friends in the world all came to stay with me for a few months. At least the summer. And my best bro is Dave. And he's really cool but also kind of a huge asshole who misuses irony and all that stuff." You look up at Karkat to see if he's following along.

He scratches his neck some. "Ok well that s_ure_ does sound like a _great _reason to be pissed off." He slips the jacket off of his head and puts it on the ground next to him. While finger combing his hair he tells you to get on with it.

"So yea. The day after my birthday he just randomly kissed me without saying anything about it." Your cheeks warm up a little bit. "Then yesterday after I got home after helping you he started making out with me in the kitchen. I did kiss back I guess, but only because I was thinking of some stuff." Before he has time to ask what you were thinking of, you continue. "That was that and I guess in the end it was kind of my fault for playing along. That also gave him the idea he could do that whenever he wanted, too, I guess." You stop talking and look down at the ground.

An uncomfortable silence surrounds you guys. You really don't want to keep going, but Karkat doesn't seem to want to say anything on the matter yet. You bring your feet up to your chest and let out a _hmph_. "John." He finally speaks up. He's also using your first name again. "Keep going." You look up to see him casually staring back at you. What was he; king of the stares or something? That makes you think of 'king of the stairs' which makes you think of Dave and his shitty comics. You sigh.

"So last night when I came home after bring you food, I went to bed like normal, but when I woke up this morning he wanted more of my face." You burry your head in your knees out of embarrassment. "And I gave him the face, but I told him I really had to go. You know, because you were here waiting. Then he wanted more than just my face and I don't really know whether or not I liked it. But I'm pretty sure I didn't, and I told him to stop but he wouldn't so I pushed him off." You take in a deep breath. Wow. You never really talked about your feelings with anybody. It felt weird. But in a good way, you think.

Karkat doesn't answer so you peek up at him; he's looking up in pure concentration, thinking. "Well. I don't really get it. Seems like he wants a black romance with you. That should be normal shouldn't it?"

"Eyum…no. Was is a…black romance?" Ok this one has you stumped.

"Egbert, oh my god. You ask me to help you and you don't even understand basic relationships." He face palms and shakes his head in disappointment.

You furrow your eyebrows. "No. I didn't ask you to help. You asked what was wrong. I said I'd tell you. And humans don't have a 'black romance' or whatever. We have romance. Which is a man and a woman liking each other. And that's it. Dave said he didn't like me romantically, though." You shrug.

He lets out a frustrated grunt and the look in his eyes scream murder. It wasn't your fault you were right. "Then why the fuck am I even trying to help you?! If you didn't ask for my help then I'm not giving it. So get the fuck out of here and don't come back." He crosses him arms and turns around.

Ok wow. Just wow. If what was Karkat's problem right now? "Karkat. I didn't mean to make you mad." You figure being a suck up will work best right now. "I'm sorry. I just got a little mad because you thought I was stupid. It's just a difference in our cultures, I guess. But really we only have normal loving relationships. I don't know what you have. So I'm sorry for that too. I should've asked you to explain your advice instead of shoving it aside." From the back of his head, you can only see the very tips of his horns. You reach up a hand quietly. "Karkat. I'll make you talk to me whether you want to or not." You poke one of his horns.

His whole body tenses up and he scoots around holding his stomach. "Black romance is kind of like hate sex. But it isn't exactly hate. More of you just want to beat the person down and watch them crumble so much that you want to fuck them." He avoids your eyes and scrunches up your nose.

"Hm. No, I don't think that's what Dave's after. I think he just wants to have casual sex with me? I've never really been the relationship type person." You ponder for a second. "But thanks anyway! I appreciate it. I guess I don't really need relationship advice, since Dave and I don't have one, but more of what to do with him. I don't know what it's like on Alternia, but here if you screw someone when they said no it's illegal. And a guy and guy in a relationship is something society doesn't want. I don't mind, I'm just not a homosexual." You shrug again.

"Do you ever shut up? How could someone even find you remotely desirable?" He tilts his head back, and ends up just laying down. "Earth sure is fucking weird though. If you have nonconsensual sex it's frowned upon but nothing happens. And two guys? Why the fuck is that weird? It's completely normal. And what the fuck is a homo…sexual?" He eyes you suspiciously. There were more cultural barriers than you thought.

Scratching the back of your head, you try your best to explain. "Because for almost all of the human existence, it's always been a girl and a guy. Only recently we've had guy and guy relationships, so people still aren't too crazy about them. Unless you're a teenage girl who writes fanfictions and reads yaoi. But that isn't the point here. A homosexual is just a person who likes the same gender as themselves."

Karkat just shakes his head. "Humans are just too fucking weird."

You laugh. "You're telling me."

* * *

**AN: Im sorry guys :T ive been having a shitstorm at school; and thus no computer or even internet access. It was hard and no body understands. But now that I'm back, I'm gonna keep up with the chapters again yay! For making the readers make so long I might work extra hard over Thanksgiving break and crank out an extra chapter this week~ thats iiiit! Love you guys. Byye :3**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

"So…Dave may or may not like you. You don't like him, but unnamed thoughts compelled you to suck his face, now he wants more from you but you don't want to." Karkat puffs some air from his mouth and watches the cloud thin out and disappear. "Sounds like you dug your own grave there, asswipe."

You steal a glance over at Karkat. You and he just had a long talk about troll and human relationships, and you still are kind of out of it. So pretty much they had love and hate relationships for reproducing. At least that part of it was similar to human relationships. Then there were moirails, which were kind of like best friends who you would trust with your life and can't live without. Finally there was the auspistice, which sounds like a third wheel that tells the two people in a relationship to kiss and make up. The last two were relatable, at least. After the conversation the two of you laid down again (with a foot of space in between!) and you finished explaining about the Dave situation. He seemed to grasp human emotion pretty well, but maybe because trolls have so many emotions to keep in check so it was just second nature? Either way, you know what he says is true.

"Yea, yea, I know." You roll over on your side to look at him. "Do you think there's any way I could just stop letting him do that? There's no way he'll believe me if I say I already have a girlfrie- matesprit." You close your eyes and sigh. You feel extremely girly right now, laying out here in the middle of the afternoon with someone and talking about feelings and relationships. But you don't really mind.

He hisses in your direction before rolling over towards you, too. "You're so fucking clueless. By even saying you had a matesprit, whether or not you actually had one, would only make him want you more."

Sometimes you really don't know what's going on in that mind of his. Wait, not sometimes, pretty much all the time you don't know. "Why though? Wouldn't it be kind of like a turn off or something? Like knowing that I lied to stop kissing him or knowing, if he believed me, that I had a matesprit?"

You open your eyes and look at him then close them again. Today was such a good day so far. Well, not first thing this morning, but from there on out, yea. "Fuck no. Douche bags like him will only see it as a challenge." You can tell he closes his eyes to think. "Just tell him to fuck off. He's a guest at your hive. He should get it. Right? If you were the one staying at his hive then he probably would've already fucked you silly by now."

Some time passes as you mull this over. No, despite was Karkat said, you don't think Dave would've raped you. He would have made you do more stuff, sure, but not that far. Still, you appreciate his thoughts. You wonder why he's in a better mood than yesterday. "Are you actually a huge asshole or do you just play the part since you don't really feel secure on this planet?" You ponder allowed. You didn't really expect an answer, but you sure as hell get one.

"Do you think a normal kid, even like yourself, would ever be able to act like such a downright fucknut in this situation? No, you'd try to befriend the harmful aliens and get your ass killed." He pauses. "Yes, I'm always like this. I tried to keep people as far away as possible so that they wouldn't discover my blood color. I already told you that."

Silence blankets over you again. "Hey, Karkat."

"Yea, Egbert?"

"Did you have any of those quadrant thingies filled?" You don't know why you're asking. Curiosity killed the cat, right? Even if Karkat was the more catlike one between to two of you, it could still happen. Oh you should probably stop thinking of pointless things now.

You open your eyes again and keep them open this time. A lot has happened in only a day, you think. You've gotten to save this alien boy, learn about where he's from, scientific and cultural differences, and more about him. Maybe you were the first one to have ever seen him cry? You strangely like that idea. Maybe you were the first one to hug him? You like that idea, too. You were the first one to hear his pent up emotions. You are happy about that. Or maybe you're just happy with life in general right now, sitting out under some trees with this boy, not a care in the world, cold wind, and little specks of sun feeling great against your skin.

"Well." He starts out. You take a minute to remember your initial question. That's right, quadrants. "It doesn't really matter anymore, does it?" It's his turn to close his eyes and lay there. Well fuck. You weren't going to take that as answer.

"Karkat! I told you all about my stuff...eh…quadrants! Now you tell me about yours! Hehehe." You feel like prying.

Which earns you the bird. "Fuck off, Egbert. I told you it doesn't matter anymore. It's not like I can ever go back or see them again." You watch the way his face moves around as he talks, looking for answers. But you don't find any.

"Pleeaasse?" You whine. You should do it. You should just use your puppy dog face. It worked last night, and it should work now. But you would feel kind of guilty using it again, because last night the stuff you made him tell you made him cry. And as heartbreaking and cute as that was, you don't want it happening again.

He sighs out of frustration and looks at you. "Yes. I had one filled." You stare at him. And stare. And stare.

Okay this could probably go on forever, so you keep going. "Well. Which one was it?" You smile at him.

And being the hardass he is, he flips around so he's laying the other way. "I only had a moirail. And the shittiest one at that. He never really asked me about myself, and I was always the one looking after him. He would sometimes have homicidal breakdowns if I didn't talk to him. So I was kind of fucking important being in the picture with him…but now I can't calm him down or anything."

You sigh through your nose and sit up. Karkat did have a pretty shitty life, didn't he? Not that you would ever tell him that. It wasn't even like the shitty life was his fault. Maybe he could learn to live a happy life here on earth now. Maybe.

"Then let your friends take care of him. Compared to you, they don't have a care in the world." Okay, that was being too blunt with things. "What I mean is. You shouldn't let your moirail, or ex- moirail or whatever, hold you down now. Now you should focus on being happy on earth, where they accept your blood color. Hehehe." You offer him your most encouraging smile.

"What the fuck ever John. If I try to live here people will just cut me open for fucking science or whatever shit it is they want." He growls under his breathe. "And I hate to tell you, but I don't exactly look human."

You stare down at him and try to think. He does have two good points. But he couldn't just lose hope like that. "Well. We can try to cover up your gray skin with makeup. And Washington is cold enough that wearing jeans and a turtleneck all year wouldn't be weird at all. And your hair is thick enough to cover your horns!" You smile. You pray inwardly that he tries to live normally.

He seems to consider it. "Fuck you, my horns would stand out like a sore thumb. Even if I tried to cover them with my hair." Was he…trying to say his horns were big?

Deep down inside, you laugh. "Okay, I guess you're right. Since you're short, people like me will see them. Us tall people have a nice vantage point."

He sits up fast and punches you in the arm. Hard. "Holy shit Karkat!" You reflexively grab your arm. There was going to be bruise there later. Dear god, it would look like you were hit with a softball.

"I'm not short, fuckass." He crosses his arms and avoids your gaze. "But…I guess I can try to cover up my horns." He brings his knees up and puts his face in them. You swear, this guy was like a living breathing bipolar soap opera. Well, maybe not bipolar so much as confused and moody. And probably hungry. You should think about heading back to your house and getting him some food for tonight.

As if on cue, his stomach growls. You don't actually know if he has a _stomach_ stomach, but whatever internal organs he has is his own business. "Hehehe. Someone's hungry." Your own stomach growls right after the words leave your lips. "Fuck." You look down at your belly. You didn't eat anything this morning, did you? You also still don't know the time. Your guess is around one in the afternoon.

"Well, Egbert. It would seem that I'm not the only one who's hungry. So why don't you leave so you can work on preparing a buffet for me." He gives you a hard look that screams _leave me alone_. "Also," he breaks eye contact again, "remember to bring peaches."

You flash him a grin. "Sure thing." You get up and start walking away and you feel disappointment start to sink in. You turn around. "Hey. Karkat?"

"What is it now, Egbert?" He's scooting back over to lean against a tree.

You don't know what to say. So you say the first thing that pops into your mind. "Can we be moirails?"

He looks at his feet for a moment. "That's not really something you ask, it's just established mentally." He still doesn't look up at you. "But. Yea, sure…I guess." He shrugs and you smile derpily. Then you leave.

After pacing on the street next to yours for ten minutes trying to decide whether to go in the front or back door, you choose the front door. You wonder what everyone thought of you being gone for so long. It wasn't like you hadn't been out this long before, but now that you actually had a reason why you stayed away from home, you felt nervous.

You swallow the nerves and open the door. Just act normal.

"Hey, John!" If Jade were a dog, her ears would've just perked up a lot. "You missed breakfast and lunch! But there's pizza left." She smiles her bucktoothed smile and giggles under her breath. "You should've woken us up this morning!"

"Yes." Rose looks up from the book she's reading to give an interested stare. "You should have. I have some questions, you see…" She also smiles, but it's more of a smirk. That must be all for now because she looks back down at her book.

"Hehehe. Sorry guys…" You take a look around the room. It's only Jade and Rose. "I fell asleep in the woods for a really long time. Hey. Where's my dad and Dave?"

Rose doesn't look up from her book. "Your dad's at work and Dave went to some girl's house." Her painted lips curl in disgust. "John, where were you last night?"

Well, no use in telling a bunch of lies. Although when you think about it, you've been doing all along. That's not the point! This time you'll tell the truth. "I went out on a walk."

"And why did you leave this morning without taking your cell phone or waking anyone up?" She slips a purple bookmark in her book and looks up at you. "Don't lie to me. If you want, I'll ask Jade to leave."

"Hey!" Jade crosses her arms dramatically and pouts.

"No. Hehehe. It's fine." You take a seat on the lazy boy. Where to start, where to start? You take your glasses off and clean them. "Well. Like a week ago Dave kissed me."

You slip your glasses back on your face to gauge their reactions. Jade is blushing a little bit and looking at the ground. Rose is cool calm and collected. And also looking expectant. "And like yesterday I actually kissed him back. Then this morning he wanted to uh…not just kiss. But he was trying to force himself on me and I got mad. And oh god oh god please don't mention this to him." You inhale sharply.

It actually felt kind of good getting it off your chest. "And that's all?" Rose probes further.

You look her in the eye and swallow. "Yea. That's it."

* * *

**AN: crisis- over. tutoring- done. Okay, let's get cracking. Thanks for bearing with me there, guys! Love ya! How was ur thanksgiving? Mine was good; i successfully avoided the family. And i powered through a 24 pack of those coffee things in the past week. Real talk now :y if you guys dont know who SirReith is, i highly recommend you look him up and get ready to update your shipping charts. If you do know, you also know he's having a fanfic contest. I'm not telling you my pen name for that, but i'll post the thing here when the competition is over :D you should thank me, i just gave you something to do with your lfie for the next four days~ and that conclude another pretty good week in the life of me. Love u all *cuddles* byyyee**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

You push the left over pizza crust around on your plate before picking up a napkin and wiping the grease off your hand. You gaze back up at your computer screen and watch more anime. Living the life, weren't you? You really wish you could tell somebody about Karkat so that you could just leave to go see him, but you know that you're selfish and want to keep him your secret. Why is that?

You reflect back on what happened after the conversation with Rose. Jade had just kind of left the room all red faced, and Rose just nodded and told you to act natural. Whatever that meant.

Dave still isn't back from that girl's house, and your dad is still at work. You check the time; it's only three thirty. You click off the internet and open up pesterchum. Not a whole lot of people used pesterchum, but you and most of your close friends still used it. You scroll through your contacts- most of which you barely talk to- and find that Dave is online. You sigh and log out; you don't want to talk to him yet. Your legs stretch and push the roller chair back.

Maybe you'd take a nap, what with the lost sleep and all. You lie down and bury yourself under the covers. Warm. Quiet. No one was around to bother you; Dave or Karkat. No, that isn't right. Karkat doesn't bother you at all. You can be yourself around him, and relax around him, and fall asleep next to him. The warm from the bed reminds you of you and him sleeping close. Your eyes close and you're asleep.

* * *

You open your eyes to find darkness all around you. When you stretch you feel the familiar tightness in your back. How long were asleep? You bleary eyes wonder over to Dave's bed. He's sitting there with his laptop on, and you look away because it's really bright. You take a deep breath, hold it, and let it out.

"Morning sleeping beauty."

"Fuck off." You mumble. Your arms hoist your body up and your feet thud on the floor. "What time is it?" You grab your glasses and put them back on.

"Do you kiss your father with those lips?" Dave doesn't seem to even be looking at you. Good. That would be something normal for him to do.

But that doesn't make him as a whole any better. Seriously, he was still a prick. "Dave. What time is it?"

"Why gotta hot date?" Karkat flashes into your mind. He's not really your hot date, or your date for that matter. Yea, the hot part was pretty true but –brain stop these half assed sleepy thoughts.

"Yea I do." You stand up and stretch your arms out. Most people would probably question why you stretch so much. You just do it because it feels nice. Not that it really matters, nobody is usually around or awake when you get up. "But really Dave, the time." You stand up and flip the lights on.

He sighs and reads the time from his laptop. "It's a little after six. Your dad should be home any minute." He sighs again. "Yo, John. Can we talk about this morning?"

You tense up, but finish your journey to your computer desk. "No. We can't. There isn't anything to say about it." You quickly check your phone and iPod. You usually took your iPod everywhere, but sense you plan on going out you charged your phone. You almost never used your phone; however your dad and friends might call you while you're out.

"Yea, see, the thing is, there is stuff to talk about." He closes his laptop and lies down. There's a moment of no talking and you hear his breathing. When he speaks there's a hint of nervousness. "I know… that I probably shouldn't have gone that far. I guess when you actually got into it yesterday and this morning, I got a little over confident." He takes his shades off and sits up, then looks over at you. "I swear to god I won't do it again if you say no. Okay? Are we cool?"

You give it some thought. He did sound sorry, and you guess it was your fault too for giving him as much as you did. "Yea, we're cool." You stop and think for a minute. Just because you forgave him didn't mean that you wanted to let him keep kissing you. You talk to Rose and Karkat about that. So you had to do what you had to do. "But. Umm… Dave-"

He chuckles and you stop talking. "Okay, good. Don't tell Rose I apologized or anything. She'll never let me live it down." It's almost as if he knows what you were going to say and cut you off. It hurts your chest, but not the same kind of hurt from this morning.

"Dave. I don't want to do anything else with you. Like kissing and stuff. Please don't. I just like being friends. Not friends with benefits; just friends." You swallow a small lump in your throat because you feel bad, and you can see that Dave looks like a kicked puppy through his poker face.

Dave smiles and breaks eye contact. "It's all good, John. I was going to stop anyway. I have ALL the bitches trying to get the dick anyway." He laughs, which is just him blowing more air through his nose than usual.

You laugh along with him, which is just some goofy giggle. Might as well go back to normal and not dwell on what happened. "Looks like I have some competition." You both laugh genuine laughs, but somewhere in the back of your mind you know that you don't have any competition.

One week goes by, and then another. Nothing out of the normal has happened, and you plan on keeping it that way. School was nearly over. The temperature was going up just enough to wear shorts if you wanted to. The three aspects of your life were going well.

At school, Rose had still only had a few friends, but she was okay with that and so were you. She still sat with you at lunch. Jade was pretty popular amongst the guys still, but was too unaware that their affections weren't just brotherly or admiration. She still sat with you at lunch, and sometimes invited others. Dave had quite the reputation. Most guys hated him and probably wanted to beat the shit out of him, but with the ladies, there was no way he couldn't tell that all the hormonal walking balls of estrogen were cooing over him. That was also okay with you, even if it was a little weird. He sometimes sat with you at lunch, but usually sat with girls. As for you, you were just…you. Decent grades and doing your normal John things.

At home it was also going well. Rose and Jade mainly kept to themselves. Your dad had a soft spot for Jade, but let's admit it, who didn't have a soft spot for that sweetie. She still clung to the TV remote like it was a lifeline, though. Dave and you were back to your old ways again. Which meant sitting around eating food and disagreeing with most things then insulting each other. Okay it was more fun than it sounded but whatever.

Finally, there was Karkat. You still hadn't told anyone about him, and you planned on keeping it that way. In the mornings you'd brag breakfast for the two of you and head out on you walk. That was around 6:30 every morning. At night after dinner you'd bring snacks with you and occasionally munch on them if he didn't like something. Of course you still brought him peaches. No one thought it was out of the ordinary, so it became a type of schedule. That aside, Karkat and you had become really good friends, you think. There was almost nothing you didn't tell him, but he still kept some things to himself. Like what the deal was with those horns. Oh well.

You slip on a pair of sneaks and a thin jacket. "I'm going out now!" You shout into the other room. Tonight it was your dad's turn to clean the dishes. And by dishes you meant any silver used, because home cooked meals were still scarce.

"Be back by nine, son!" Your dad calls back to you. You wave a quick good bye to your friends, who were all out in the living room watching Power Puff Girls again, Jade's newfound favorite.

You step outside and begin lightly jogging. That's another thing, with taking two trips a day, you had built up a little bit of muscle. Enough so that you could at least jog to the woods. If you had to guess, you'd say it's about a mile there, so that means four miles a day. Not a bad way to start exercising, really.

You let meaningless thoughts float around in your head until you're there and then take a minute to catch your breath. "Karkat!" You shout into the woods. Sometimes, if the weather was nice, you liked to eat out by the lake.

He stumbles out of the woods and gives you the death glare. "I wanted to get some fucking sleep, shit for brains."

Yea, even if you were friends, he was still Karkat after all. And if you've learned anything, it's just to go along with it. "Yea whatever, you have ALL DAY to sleep Karkat. I'm forced to be awake between you in the mornings, school, homework, and you at night." You stick out your tongue at him and set the stuff down on a flat rock you guys have been using as a table.

"I didn't ask for you to take care of me stupid." You shrug and he shivers. "One minute." He runs back into the woods. You arrange the food stash on the rock by color, then by letter, and while you think of another way to organize them Karkat emerges again. "It's fucking freezing on this planet."

You look up at him. It happens almost every time you guys eat out here because of the wind, but each time you have to fight back your urge to hug the crap out of him. During the first week he was here, you brought him one of your sweaters that you didn't really wear do he wouldn't have to be cold. You decided when he put it on it was the best decision you ever made.

He walks over to the rock and sits down across from you. When he starts eating you find the opportunity to ogle. The sweater he used to have was flimsy, and fitted with a turtleneck. This one was a light blue knitted sweater. It was thicker material, so it was definitely warmer, and, sense it used to be yours, it was baggy of him. Just to eat he had to roll up his sleeves. If that wasn't adorable enough, your Nanna had knitted two cat ears and whiskers on the belly part of the sweater.

That's yet another thing you started doing over the last two weeks. You couldn't help but find Karkat breathtakingly attractive; sometimes cute, sometimes sexy. You stopped telling yourself that thinking those things was wrong. Because you who are you kidding, look at him.

"Egbert, you're doing it again." You blind a few times and look around. "Spacing out. You probably do that in school a lot. I bet you get severe discipline." He gets an evil glint in his eye, but he's still smiling. "I hope they fucking stab you a lot."

You just laugh it off. "Oh yea, that always happens. As for the stabbing part, it's the pain I deserve." You wink at him and he chokes on his food.

"For the love of fuck never do that again!" You can't stop laughing and have to put your head down. "You sound like someone I used to talk to! He liked being bossed around and being punished and that shit. I was found him extremely fucking creepy!"

You take a few deep breaths. "Lesson learned. But oh my god Karkat you should've seen the look on your face!" You lift your glasses up and wipe away a few tears. He flips you off and keeps eating.

For another half hour you two sit around and talk about a bunch of nothing, just looking out at the water. You really like this. Just hanging out with Karkat and not thinking about anything else. You slip your phone out of your pocket and check the time; 8:50. Damn.

"Well, it's time for me to go." You stand up and offer him a hand. He takes it and you hoist him up. "I'll see you tomorrow!"

You walk a few steps before he says anything. "Uh… John?" Okay first name time to turn around.

"Yea?" You can't help but smile. He was probably the cutest when he had something that he thought was stupid or embarrassing to say.

He sticks his lips out and looks around. You feel your heartbeat speed up tenfold. "Can you get me one of those…communication devices?" His eyes settle somewhere on the ground and he blushes a little bit. You feel your heart do a back flip. "I get bored out here with nothing to do…"

You really can't hold back any more and oh walk over to him. Even if you really want to hug him, you settle on putting your hand on his head, carefully avoiding his horns. He doesn't shoo you away and now your heart is about ready to explode. "I'll see what I can do." You smile and start jogging away.

When you get home you head right upstairs. Usually you just wanted to hug him because he seems so huggable. But what was wrong with you? Today you actually thought about kissing him.

* * *

**AN: sorry about the wait guys, i actually feel really guilty about that. i also get that this is a wednesday. so i'll probably have the next chapter out on moday, then go back to weekends. but i got my own laptop for school work, so itll be easier for me to type these now :) thank u to those who still follow the story, i really love you guys! thats all there is to say really :D well, i hope u liked this chapter, i liked writing it. bye 3 (i hope that shows up as a heart!)  
**


	11. Getting My Shit Together

Ok so another busy week at school and home, plus I had guests over this weekend and its considered rude to ignore them to get on my laptop. BUT! I have tomorrow off so as a special little treat and a "im sorry for putting you guys though updating hell" i cross my heart and hope to die i'll put out two chapters wheeee! thats it for this short message. Ok well as always, love u guys if i could marry you i would OwO


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